'Portrait of a Man' painting: Destined for a Nazi museum, returned to heirs

The French government has returned 'Portrait of a Man' a 16th-century Flemish painting to Henrietta Schubert, whose grandparents sold it decades ago as they struggled to escape Nazi Germany.

|
Michel Euler/AP
French Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay, center, poses with Henrietta Schubert, left, and her cousin Christopher Bromberg, right, next to a 16th-century painting attributed to the school of Joos van Cleve, "Portrait of a Man," during a ceremony at the Culture Ministry in Paris, on Monday, Nov. 28, 2016.

The granddaughter of a Jewish couple who escaped Nazi Germany by selling one of their prized paintings has been reunited with the work – despite never knowing it existed.

Henrietta Schubert, who lives in Vienna, was recently contacted by the French government, who told her that a 16th-century portrait in their museums belonged to her. While she hadn’t heard her grandparents speak of the 'Portrait of a Man' painting or its sale in 1938, genealogists were able to track her down and present the portrait to her at an unveiling in Paris almost 80 years later.

"You never expect something like this," Schubert told the Associated Press. "The Nazis are dead, and this can help our wounds heal."

In France, around 2,000 pieces of unclaimed art and artifacts with connections to the Holocaust and Nazi Germany adorn the walls or sit on the shelves of museums. France acquired them after the Allies defeated the Nazis in 1945.

While more than 100 pieces were stolen from Jews, others may have been commissioned or purchased by Nazis during the Holocaust. Experts have yet to determine the origins of many pieces, but all are labeled “MNR” – for National Museums Recovery in French. Those letters were often the sole indication of histories, leaving millions of viewers unaware of their complex and tragic origins.

For years, the government has relied on those with ties to the artwork to come forward, verifying their right to the pieces and returning them. Now, France has amped up its efforts to connect the mysterious pieces to their original owners or heirs, hoping the pieces of family history can heal some of the wounds left by the Holocaust.

"Many Holocaust survivors and Jews who fled the Germans didn't talk about their often painful wartime experiences, including that they had art works spoliated. So many families don't know," Marie-Christine Labourdette, France's director of museums, told The Associated Press.

Experts determined that the painting returned to Schubert’s family was one of many intended to hang in Adolf Hitler’s Fuhrermuseum, which he intended to open in his hometown of Linz, Austria, to house stolen works of art. Her grandparents exchanged the piece to secure passage to America.

While some of the pieces come from world renowned artists like Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet, Paul Gauguin, and Gustave Courbet, others are lesser known and of little value.

For many families, the cash value of the art isn’t what matters, but the emotional connection to their own family’s past.

"The painting doesn't even have to have any monetary value," Christopher Bromberg, Schubert’s cousin from Philadelphia who traveled to Paris to receive the painting with her, said. "It's about connecting us to our past and the story of our family that was lost."

This report contains material from the Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Portrait of a Man' painting: Destined for a Nazi museum, returned to heirs
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2016/1129/Portrait-of-a-Man-painting-Destined-for-a-Nazi-museum-returned-to-heirs
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe